Drill for waiting on the pitch?

[vanhollymorgan]

Have a girl that is a big time power hitter. But she lives within 5 foot of the third base line. She sends line drives or home runs literally right down third base line. However she sends foul ball after foul as well left. 70 games this season, 10 strike outs. She either walks or end up with a hit. Good swing mechanics, just to early.

Problem is she is hitting the ball so far in front of her it has no where to go but foul. Don't ask me how but she even was standing in the box this weekend , a pitch came in that was on track to be thrown behind her, some how she still swung at the ball, hit it far enough in front of her that it seemed to hit the back of the ball as it came though, balls passed 5 inches behind her. Umpire and other coach actually stopped and asked if that just happened. Did she just hit the ball around herself? Was the question.

Girl is 5'6 at 11 years old, shes swinging a 31/30 bat. We have her in the front of the box against a 12u pitcher at 40ft. Shes not falling forward or no bad swings shes making contact. But she starts her swing so early its unreal. Weve tried to close her stance, we have used heavy bats, weve done tennis ball drill bouncing them to her in an effort make her wait for the ball to get in the power zone.

Teams now are beginning to put a player LF in foul territory, bringing their center fielder to left field, 3rd base plays the line and SS plays right behind her.

We dont want to aim her in the box.... any ideas? Shes frustrated as heck. The only time ive seen her hit to strait away center is against a college pitcher at one of the camps she went to as a pitcher. And i thought she swung late

 

[vanhollymorgan]

oh and its not change ups, its every pitch, fastballs from the fastest pitchers we see, a change up you better be awake in the batters box thats for sure

 

[JJsqueeze]

With timing issues in general I like to approach it from the perspective of overcorrection. When a pitcher is throwing hi I ask for a few in the dirt, when they are throwing low I ask few a few over my head. It is easier to "feel" the big difference in timing this way and then make smaller adjustments.

Try to have her swing just AFTER the ball has passed her and start working her back towards hitting to right field-center-left. Rinse and repeat. Once she has this then try to call out the field she should hit to as you pitch the ball to her.

 

[Bouldersdad]

Not having a visual its going to be every persons guess, I would start by t work concentrating on the inside seam of the ball, sounds like shes tearing up the outside seam or rotating around the ball or how ever you want to say it. Set the tee deeper on the plate get her used to hitting at or behind the front foot thinking inside seam

 

[canyonjoe]

If you have an indoor facility try bounding tennis balls to her and have her hit to right. It will take some time but should help her out. Also are you playing in rec or is this TB. If it's rec 35 MPH pitchers you might not want to do too much.

 

[StingRay]

set up a tee so it is outside and inline with the middle of her stance or even as far back as her back foot. have her hit to right field. until she can hit 10 out of 10 to right field with solid contact dont move the tee any further inside.

 

[Rocketech1]

set up a tee so it is outside and inline with the middle of her stance or even as far back as her back foot. have her hit to right field. until she can hit 10 out of 10 to right field with solid contact dont move the tee any further inside.

Agree with StingRay, and after his Tee drill, set up a hitting net or screen between 1st and 2nd bases and pitch outside to her having her hit line drives into the net. In general, hitters need to hit the ball where it is pitched and go with the pitch (instead of always trying to pull the ball).

 

[JAD]

We do a front toss drill with softballs or tennis balls where we bounce the ball up to the plate and the hitter has to stay back and drive the ball. Not a guaranteed solution, but we have found that it helps the batter learn to time the pitch vs. swinging out of their shoes at change ups!

 

[Jim]

You can exaggerate the T drill this way.

Set up the ball so it is on inside corner, and have the depth at her front foot. Tell her to hit those on a line to the second baseman. Then set it up in the middle (same depth) and tell her to hit those to the second baseman as well. Move it to outside corner (same depth) and again hit hard line drives to the second baseman. Then set it in the middle again and hit it hard on a line to the second baseman.

Keeping the depth the same is important for this drill!

Have her hit 8-10 at each location. Repeat.

 

[SBFAMILY]

Easy drill that teaches them to stay back. Outside on concrete have her drop the ball or you can. She must hit it on the bounce up. Bustos does this drill.